Toddler Found Holding His Dying Mother’s Hand On The Side Of A Road

Marjorie Sue Fithian was a 23-year-old described as a free spirit by her friends. She lived in Greeley, Colorado, with her 18-month-old son, Dylan Sage Reese.

Just after 7 AM on June 24, 1975, Marjorie’s uncle dropped her and Sage off at a bus station in Denver. They had been visiting relatives and were heading back to Greeley.

About two hours later, a 24-year-old ranch worker noticed something unusual on the side of a dirt road in Weld County near Roggen. As Terry Furnish approached the area, he realized it was an unconscious woman. Next to her was a toddler holding her hand.

The woman was bleeding out heavily, and although unharmed, the small boy was sitting on glass shards. Terry moved him to a safer spot and ran nearby to call emergency services. He then returned to console the baby until an ambulance arrived a while later.

“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether to put him in the pickup, but I set him just out of the glass. You just don’t know what would have happened to the little guy, and his mom, too. It’s just so unfortunate — it was so remote then — the ambulance took a long time, over an hour if I remember right.”

It didn’t take long for the woman to be identified as Marjorie and the baby as Sage. Police found a suitcase along the road which contained clothes and a phone number for Marjorie’s mother, Betty.

Marjorie was shot twice in the face and pronounced dead upon arriving at Brighton Community Hospital. A spent .25 caliber casing was found near her body. Police believe Terry stumbled across the crime scene moments after the mother and son were dumped there.

Marjorie and Sage did not board the bus to Greeley that departed at 7:30 AM as they were supposed to. Somehow, they still made it to Weld County, where Greeley is located.

After dropping them off, Marjorie’s uncle returned home and realized she had forgotten some of her money, so she may have not been able to buy a ticket. There is a theory that Marjorie decided to hitchhike.

The young mother and her son were seen at a café in Roggen that morning. Witnesses also reported seeing a two-door car with a yellow body and a black top in the area. It was a 1960s model Ford or Chevrolet with a possible broken window.

Authorities say there are several persons of interest but have not been able to close the case.

34-year-old Jerry Eugene Walker was arrested early in the investigation. According to a confidential informant, he had shown pictures of a wounded Marjorie and had told people he “shot the bitch in the face.” The murder charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence on September 30, 1975. Two weeks later, Jerry died of an accidental drug overdose.

Aside from hitchhiking gone wrong, police also pondered the possibility of Marjorie being the victim of a serial killer, though there is no evidence. Drug trafficking was also looked into, as the 23-year-old was known to smoke weed. According to Detective Byron Kastilahn from the Weld County Sheriff’s Office,

“They thought (Fithian) might have acted as a drug mule, transporting drugs from Denver somewhere else.”

Sage has no recollection of his mother’s murder. Raised by his aunt and grandmother, he now has his own family. Sage believes his mother’s artistic talents have been passed down to his children.

Marjorie Sue Fithian’s murder has been unsolved for 48 years.